Practicing a safe and healthy martial art like Jiu-Jitsu is a major help in bringing up your brood.

As GRACIEMAG.com always tries to drive home, your little one will learn to defend himself, besides assimilating concepts like loyalty, discipline, respect and honor.

And if you’re a practitioner yourself, that’s even better. After all, you’ll be able to spend more time with him and teach him what you know.

Can you imagine your weekends, clearing out the couch and having a roll on the living room floor?

There are those who don’t limit themselves to imagining, as you can see in the video below. Because Jiu-Jitsu can be great company, but nothing like the love between parents and their kids.

Branson Graf and family at Pan Kids 2012 (Photo by Deb Blyth/GRACIEMAG.com)

How about adding “give Jiu-Jitsu a chance” to your New Year’s resolutions?

C’mon, try it out. At a good gentle-art school, your kids learn how to defend themselves, and by year’s end they’ve learned so much more than that.

They’ve learned such concepts as loyalty, discipline, dedication, respect and honor. Precepts for making them better people—and they learn to defend themselves when their parents and protectors aren’t around to boot.

Watch the class below, and rest assured: with Jiu-Jitsu your kids will never be alone again.

GRACIEMAG isn’t just a magazine for teaching Jiu-Jitsu. It’s for awaking in you a desire to further your learning. And that yearning is often the result of information exchanged between the writers and their readers.

Such is the case with the following letter sent to us from the city of Natal, in the Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Norte, by Professor Gustavo Alexandre Alves of team Gracie Humaitá-RN.

Check out what he learned and taught us after reading the article “The end of bullying’s days”.

“I teach a class on bullying prevention to kids at Gracie Humaitá/RN and now at the school Facex. We managed to set up a Jiu-Jitsu class at the school, making the anti-bullying program part of the school curriculum.

“In my opinion, as a Jiu-Jitsu teacher and perpetual student, the practice of the martial art leads students to self-knowledge. Even when they know how to defend themselves, even able to subdue an aggressor and, as a last resort, use force, they know what their own strengths and weaknesses are.

“What does that mean? That above all they know they’re not perfect or superior to everybody. They thus know to respect others, without fear but also without arrogance. And the key piece in combatting bullying, which I cite as being the ill of the century, is respect. Jiu-Jitsu makes us think before acting. That’s why, to me, it’s our perfect weapon for fighting bullying.

“Best wishes to the whole GRACIEMAG team,

Gustavo Alves

Natal/RN”

What about you, gentle reader? What did you learn from the latest issue of GRACIEMAG? Share your lessons with us, and help make the magazine even better.

Anyone who studies Jiu-Jitsu knows how the art is more than just an entertaining form of exercise; it’s a solid foundation for your child’s upbringing, not to mention being a painless antidote to bullying.

It’s with this focus that GRACIEMAG #187 hits better bookstores and academies near you. So rush out and get the lessons that will help protect your family from embarrassing and unfortunate incidents.

The ones who know best what Jiu-Jitsu can do are the gentle-art professors affiliated with our GMA, the worldwide GRACIE Magazine Association that distributes our publication. At Gracie Oceania and affiliate schools around the region, for instance, students work daily to hone such traits as discipline, persistence, cooperation and respect.

So how about bringing your kid up with Jiu-Jitsu’s help? Read GRACIEMAG to find out how.

To find out more, visit www.gbsydney.com.au/

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MVz4_Uq_JfI